Mountain bikers fixing bridleways, volunteers pulling invasive plants, communities restoring riverbanks. Grassroots conservation projects the Foundation has supported.
The places people love spending time in don't look after themselves. Behind every well-maintained bridleway, clean river, and healthy habitat, there are people who give their time. These are some of the community conservation projects the Alpkit Foundation has supported.
Getting hands dirty on the moors
Blacka Moor Nature Reserve sits on the edge of Sheffield, and Devil's Elbow is one of its most-used bridleways. When Ride Sheffield and Sheffield and Rotherham Wildlife Trust decided the trail needed serious work, they put together what became one of Ride Sheffield's best volunteer days. Thirty people showed up with shovels. Sheffield City Council supplied the material; local trail builders BikeTrack gave their time for free; the Foundation helped cover the cost of equipment hire.
John Horscroft from Ride Sheffield: "Thanks to local firms like Alpkit and BikeTrack, Ride Sheffield continues to do all it can to support local conservation groups and keep rights of way in top condition."
A few miles away, a different kind of community project was taking shape. Team Green Moor is a group of volunteers in the village of Greenmoor who have spent years improving the outdoor environment around their community: gardens in the children's playground, walking trails, wildlife habitats, and a bird hide. A Foundation grant helped them build accessible wooden steps down from the playing field to connect it to their nature trail, replacing a steep grassy slope that had made the route difficult for people with mobility issues.
Dave Rose of Team Green Moor: "Local residents and visitors are already using the steps to access the walking trails, including residents who have walking difficulties."
Looking after the rivers
Rivers are under pressure from all sides. Two projects on opposite sides of the country are working to restore what's been lost.
In the Tyne catchment, the Tyne Rivers Trust coordinates the Tyne Invasive Non-Native Species (TINNS) project, which tackles Himalayan balsam, giant hogweed, and Japanese knotweed along the riverbanks. These plants crowd out native species, destabilise riverbanks, and in the case of giant hogweed, pose a direct risk to human health. Removing them at scale requires volunteers, organisation, and the right equipment. A Foundation grant helped fund a brushcutter for tackling larger infestations.
Volunteer coordinator Jenny Elliot: "A catchment-wide approach, and ideally regional, is vital to eradication. Seeds are dispersed downstream by river systems, so a top-down approach is the best way to control the spread."
On the River Lea in east London, Thames21 introduced a new reedbed to tackle water pollution and create habitat. The River Lea is one of the most polluted waterways in the UK. Reedbeds filter water naturally, slow erosion, and give fish somewhere to spawn. Ben from Thames21 described the aim as wanting to "green a heavily urbanised section of waterway for local people" as well as opening up training opportunities for volunteers to learn about river ecology.
Saving what's almost gone
In Devon, the situation is more urgent. The white-clawed crayfish, the UK's only native freshwater crayfish, is at risk of extinction in the River Culm within five years. The cause is a combination of habitat degradation and the arrival of the North American Signal Crayfish, which carries a disease to which the white-clawed has no resistance.
Wild Planet Trust is working with communities along the river to identify safe "ark" sites where white-clawed crayfish can be rehomed away from the invasive species, and training volunteers as citizen scientists to carry out invertebrate surveys.
Carly Hobson from Wild Planet Trust: "By working together to save this species on the verge of extinction we demonstrate hope and connection to our wild planet. We'll train local people of all ages as citizen scientists to support and encourage them to get wet and muddy and generate excitement about our local environment."
The Foundation exists to back projects that make the outdoors better for everyone. These conservation grants are one part of that — funding the people who give their time to keep wild places healthy. If your project looks after a local environment or teaches others to do the same, find out how to apply.